Saikhom Mirabai Chanu

Mirabai Chanu and the struggle for glory in 2024 in Indian weightlifting

Not many sports are inseparably linked with an individual, but Mirabai Chanu has been that one name in Indian weightlifting for several years now and 2024 was no different as she carried the weight of the nation's aspirations for Olympic glory once again. However, this time those dreams ended in heartbreak not just for her but also for the sport that has struggled to find a worthy successor to her. Chanu, who etched her name in history by ending India's 21-year Olympic medal drought in the sport with a silver at the Tokyo Games, embarked on a quest this year to achieve an extraordinary feat -- a second consecutive Olympic medal in weightlifting. While no other Indian lifter came close to qualifying for the Paris Games, Chanu secured her spot with an underwhelming 184kg (81kg + 103kg) at the Phuket World Cup, while making a remarkable return from a six-month injury layoff. Her journey to Paris was fraught with challenges. At 29, Chanu faced an uphill battle against an injury-ravage

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Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu fails to win 2nd Olympic medal, finishes fourth

Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu came tantalisingly close to clinching a second Olympic medal but a faltered lift in her final attempt cruelly snatched the dream from her grasp, leaving her with a fourth place finish in the women's 49kg event here on Wednesday. Chanu, who turns 30 on Thursday, lifted a total of 199kg (88kg+111kg) at the South Paris Arena. It was 3kgs less than what she heaved at the Tokyo Olympics, 202 kg for a silver medal. Mirabai could managed only three lifts, two of which came in the clean and jerk section, out of six attempts. The former world champion had done well to keep herself in medal contention after the snatch event but her failure to lift 114kg in her final clean and jerk attempt cost her dearly. Had she succeeded she would have bagged the bronze medal. China's Hou Zhihui smashed the clean and jerk Olympic record as she sucessfully defended her title with an effort of 206kg (89kg+117kg). Romanian Mihaela Cambei took home the silver with total of

Paris Olympics 2024 HIGHLIGHTS Day 12: Mirabai Chanu finishes fourth; Avinash finishes 11th

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Olympics 2024 Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu's event live time IST, streaming

Mirabai Chanu will be defending her Tokyo Olympics silver medal in women's 49kg weightlifting event. Mirabai's event will begin at 11 PM IST

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India at Olympics: Avinash Sable to Mirabai Chanu- check India's schedule, live match timings on Day 12 of the Olympics 2024

Paris Olympics 2024: Injuries are mentally challenging - Mirabai Chanu

She heaved her lowest weight in years at the World Cup recently but Olympic silver-medallist Mirabai Chanu is actually quite chuffed about her performance as she managed it on the back of just one month's training after enduring a challenging injury breakdown. With only four months to go for the Paris Olympics, Chanu, who was competing in her first tournament since her Asian Games breakdown, finished 12th at the IWF World Cup with a total effort of 184kg (81kg+103kg), a whopping 33kg behind China's Hou Zhihui, who will look to defend her Olympic title. "I was delighted to be back in competition. Everything is okay now, recovery is good. I'm training at 70 per cent," Chanu told PTI. After watching her opponents raise the bar by breaking records in the 49kg weight class, Chanu's confidence received a significant boost when she heaved the barbell after just a month of training. "It felt very good. After the injury (at Asian Games), I lifted weights after 4-5 months and I got a lot of

Paris 2024: Mirabai returns to competitive action after 6-month layoff

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist lifter Mirabai Chanu will return to competitive action after a six-month injury layoff when she participates at the IWF World Cup to confirm her Paris Games berth here on Monday. The World Cup is not only the final Olympic qualifying event but also a mandatory qualifier for the Paris Games. Chanu, who has been recuperating from hip tendonitis she suffered during the Asian Games in September last year, has all but qualified for the Paris Olympics. An appearance at the World Cup on Monday will be enough for her to seal her passage to Paris as the former world champion is ranked second in the women's 49kg Olympic Qualification Ranking (OQR) behind China's Jian HuiHua. Under the 2024 Olympics qualification rules, the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 World Cup are compulsory events. Apart from these two tournaments, a lifter must participate in at least three of the following events the 2022 World Championships, the 2023 Continental Championships,

Paris 2024: Sports Ministry approves Jena and Chanu's training overseas

The Sports Ministry on Thursday approved Asian Games silver medallist javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena's proposal to train in Australia, while also funding Tokyo Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu's month-long rehab training in the US ahead of the Paris Games. Jena will be training in Gold Coast, Australia for 78 days, while Chanu will head to the US for training in St. Louis. She will be having regular sessions with Dr Aron Horschig and will be accompanied by chief coach Vijay Sharma. "MYAS, under its Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) will fund Jena, his coach and physiotherapist's airfare, boarding & lodging expenditures, along with cost for availing training and massage facilities, medical and local travel expenses and Medical Insurance cost among other expenditures," the Ministry said in a release. "Ministry, under TOPS funding will cover her (Mirabai) and her coach's airfare, boarding & lodging cost, gym expenses, medical insurance cost among other expenditures." The ...

Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu set to miss Asian Championships in Feb

Injured Mirabai Chanu's return to the weightlifting arena has been further delayed as the Olympic silver medallist is set to miss the Asian Championships in February next year. Chanu, who competes in the 49kg weight class, is still recovering from the hip tendinitis injury she sustained in October while competing at the Asian Games. The former world champion, who did not lift any weight at the ongoing IWF Grand Prix II, was earlier targeting to get fit by the Asian Championships, scheduled to take place from February 3 to 10 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. "I will not participate in the Asian Championship this time. Instead, I will participate in the World Cup," Chanu told PTI on Tuesday. Under the Paris Olympic qualification rules, a lifter has to compulsorily compete in the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 World Cup, slated from March 31 to April 11 in Phuket, Thailand. Apart from the above, the lifter also has to participate in three of the following events the 2022 World ...

Mirabai eyes elusive Asian Games medal, under pressure to lift 90kg snatch

Pressure will be on Mirabai Chanu to nail the much-awaited 90kg snatch lift for a shot at that elusive Asian Games medal when the weightlifting competitions gets underway here on Saturday. But it will not be an easy task for the Manipuri to find the podium at the continental event, which features lifters from weightlifting powerhouses like China, North Korea and Thailand. Chanu has been a frontrunner in the 49kg event for sometime but the Indian now finds herself outside the 90kg elite club, playing catch up with her rivals. While she's still among the top three in the clean and jerk section, her personal best standing at 119kg, Chanu's continuous below par performance in snatch has started hurting her total weight. As many as seven lifters have breached the 90kg mark and four of them -- China's two-time world champion Jiang Huihua, North Korean Ri Song Gum and the Thai duo of Thanyathon Sukcharoen and Surodchana Khambao -- will be competing to stand on top of the podium at the ...

Weightlifting: China's Jiang Huihua breaks Mirabai Chanu's world record

Chinese lifter Jiang Huihua obliterated Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu's clean and jerk world record by lifting 120kg at the World Championships here on Tuesday. Huihua bettered Chanu's record of 119kg, which the Indian had created at the 2021 Asian Championships, in the women's 49kg clean and jerk section as she successfully defended her World Championships crown. The Chinese lifter also created a new world record for the total lift as she heaved 215kg, two kilograms better than the previous world mark (213kg) which was in her compatriot and reigning Olympic champion Hou Zhihui's name. Huihua lifted 95kg in snatch to claim the top honours in the marquee event. Zhihui finished second 211kg (95kg+116kg) while USA's Jourdan Delacruz 200kg (88kg+112kg) took home the bronze medal. Chanu, who is the frontrunner in the weight class, had withdrawn from the competition after weighing in as she focusses on the Asian Games, scheduled to begin later this month.

Commonwealth Weightlifting: Indians eye top position in Mirabai's absence

Hosts India are expected to win a bagful of medals despite the absence of star lifters, including Mirabai Chanu, when the Commonwealth Championships get underway here on Wednesday. The Commonwealth tournaments -- Commonwealth Games and the Commonwealth Championships -- are a happy hunting ground for Indian weightlifters, who make the most of the absence of traditional powerhouses like China and North Korea. Since the 2011 edition of the Commonwealth Championships, India have finished as the best-performing nation every time barring in 2013 and 2021. In the last edition, Indian lifters reigned supreme, bringing back a haul of 16 medals - the most by a country in 2021 - but lost the top spot to Canada owing to an inferior gold medal tally. And this year, the lifters will be keen to rectify the mistake, especially with the home crowd cheering them on. Despite the absence of Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Mirabai -- the biggest name in Indian weightlifting, Youth Olympic champion Jere

Mirabai Chanu and Bindyarani Devi's proposal to train in the US approved

The Sports Ministry has approved the foreign training camp for Target Olympic Podium Scheme athletes Mirabai Chanu and Bindyarani Devi, who will head to the USA in the Asian Games build-up. The approval was given during the Mission Olympic Cell's (MOC) recent meeting. Olympic medallist Mirabai and Commonwealth Games medal winner Bindyarani would be training at St. Louis's SQUAT University under Dr Aron Horschig and working on their rehabilitation and strength training process ahead of the upcoming Asian Games. During their 65-day foreign training camp, the duo will be accompanied by Indian chief coach Vijay Sharma and their physiotherapist Tesneem Zayyad. The government will cover their air travel expenses, boarding and lodging cost, medical insurance, local transportation cost, gym expenses and doctor's consultation cost among other expenses.

Mirabai Chanu to lead India at Asian Weightlifting Championships 2023

In her first international competition of the year, Tokyo 2020 medalist Mirabai Chanu will lead a six-person Indian team at the Asian Weightlifting Championships 2023 in Jinju

Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu wins BBC Indian Sportswoman Of The Year award

Tokyo Olympic Games silver-medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu has bagged the 2022 'BBC Indian Sportswoman Of The Year' award after a public vote. The 28-year-old weightlifter from Manipur became the first athlete to win the award twice in a row after bagging it in 2021 as well. At the Tokyo Games, she had become the first Indian to win a silver in the sport. Last year, she went on to secure gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She also won a silver medal at the World Weightlifting Championships in 2022. "I am really excited and want to say that I will be working even harder for the forthcoming games and win more medals for India," said Chanu. The other short-listed contenders for the award were wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, boxer Nikhat Zareen and badminton player PV Sindhu. Table tennis player Bhavina Patel won the 'BBC Para Sportswoman of the Year' award, a category introduced this year. She won a silver at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, becoming the firs

Mirabai clinches silver at World Championship despite wrist issue

Star Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu was not at her best due to a wrist injury but still won a silver medal at the World Championships with a total lift of 200kg, here on Wednesday. The Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, competing in 49kg category, managed to lift 87kg in snatch and in clean and jerk her best effort was a lift of 113kg. The Indian finished behind China's Jiang Huihua, who won the gold with a total effort of 206kg (93kg+113kg) while her compatriot and Tokyo Olympics champion Hou Zhihua 198kg (89kg+109kg) took home the bronze medal. "We were not taking any pressure for this event. This is the weight Mira lifts regularly. From now we will start increasing the weights and improving," head coach Vijay Sharma told PTI. Chanu, the 2017 world champion, had hurt her wrist during a training session in September. She had also participated in the National Games with the injury in October. "We couldn't do much (about the injury) because we didn't want to skip the World ...

Weightlifting at National Games: Mirabai bags 49kg gold, pips Sanjita

Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu expectedly won the gold medal with a total lift of 191 kgs in the women's 49kg weightlifting competition at the 36th National Games here on Friday. Mirabai, who had claimed the Commonwealth Games gold medal in Birmingham in August, walked away with the title after lifting 84kg in snatch and 107 kgs in clean & jerk. Participating in her second National Games, Mirabai revealed that she was nursing an injury in her left wrist, due to which she didn't go for her third attempts in both sections. I recently injured my left wrist during training at NIS, Patiala, after which I made sure not to risk it further. The World Championships are coming up in December, she said. It is a proud moment for me to represent Manipur at the National Games, and the excitement doubled when I was asked to lead the contingent at the Opening Ceremony. It normally gets hectic to attend opening ceremonies as my event starts early the next day, but I felt I must challenge ..

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Commonwealth Games 2022 medal tally: India finishes at 4th spot in CWG

India finishes their campaign at 4th spot with 61 medals. While India Men's Hockey team lost to Australia, PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Chirag Shetty-Sairaj Satwik Rankireddy bags gold for India.